20080331

Jihad is a global movement to advance Islamism over the world. This news report shows Islamic violence and terror fomented locally- without direction from a central al-Qaeda. Are police acquiring adequate intelligence locally? What have they learned since botching the investigation of al-Qaeda's first domestic terrorism- assassinating Zionist leader, Rabbi Meir Kahane (whose perpetrators the FBI could have pre-empted from bombing the World Trade Center).

20080327

Terror, claims Dutch Parliamentarian, Geert Wilders, must be understood as the terrorists do, as inspired by fundamentalist Islamic doctrine. Replaced LiveLeak removed original with MyPetJawa's on GoogleVideo.

20080320

"Righteous-Gentile" authority, JoAnn Magnusson, calls upon Christians to reform scriptural mis-interpretations which have been utilized to bias and harm Jews through the ages. Working on behalf of the International Christian Embassy in Jerusale and Israel's Holocaust Museum- Yad Vashem, she calls upon Christian groups to reform theological bias responsible for millenia of persecution of Jews.

Ms. Magnusson is dedicated to repentence and reform for crimes against Jewry committed by Christianity through the ages. She has led Christian groups marching alongside Jews to the Auschwitz to Israel, 'March of the Living' a dozen times. Ms. Magnusson seeks dialogue with secular and Christian groups. Please comment for contact info.

20080319

The Left commemorated the 5th Anniversary of the Iraq War by organizing Anti-War protests between March 15-19th. (See 5YearsTooMany.com for reports from a rally close to you).

The Left's anti-Iraq War rallies have a sneaky habit of manipulating Iraq protestors to echo a pro-war agenda against Israel for its self-defense against Palestinian terrorism. Minority-rights and pro-Zionism activists find themselves at odds at gatherings to defend against anti-Israelism/anti-Semitism. This photo is from London. Below is Hollywood, Calif. Please note the prominent Palestine against Israel sympathism.

The war in Iraq has gone on for nearly five years. The unbearable costs at home and abroad keep mounting. It's clear that Americans are ready for a real change in direction. On March 19th, tens of thousands of people across the country will gather to observe the fifth anniversary of the war with candlelight vigils.

We'll commemorate the sacrifices too many families have made, and the billions of dollars wasted in Iraq that could have been better invested at home. Join us at a candlelight vigil on Wednesday, March 19th. Honor the sacrifice. Change our priorities. Bring the troops home. Click here to organize your own vigil, or sign up for one near you.

20080317

Antisemitism 2.0 is the use of online social networking and content collaboration to share demonization, conspiracy theories, Holocaust denial, and classical antisemitic motifs with a view to creating social acceptability for such content. Either Jews in general or the Jewish state may be targeted in Antisemitism 2.0, and often the distinction between Israel and Jews is lost. Antisemitism specifically related to Israel is commonly perpetrated by making comparisons between Israel and popular paradigms of evil, the two classic cases being Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa. The comparison with the Nazis has the added antisemitic value to its perpetrators of inverting the Holocaust.

The Web and Web 2.0 are here to stay. Their influence is powerful and growing. As people begin to connect in new ways, antisemitism finds new ways of spreading. In the social web a new form of social acceptability for antisemitism is forming, an Antisemitism 2.0. This needs to be recognized, monitored, and combated. While expectations are still in flux, the wider community needs to make clear the unacceptability of antisemitism in online social engagement. The Jewish community-as the key stakeholder-needs to play a leadership role in this, not just in policy formation but also in direct engagement with the public. Now is the time to help shape the bounds of social acceptability in this new social medium.

To challenge Antisemitism 2.0, the Jewish community must begin to engage online, not as a collection of organizations but as an online community made up of individuals and organizations.

The community response needs to include the exhortation of every member to take a stand and engage online. Where volume is power, leaving a response to someone else-regardless of their expertise-is counterproductive. The community has the talent to combat antisemitism online, but only if it is recognized, trained, funded, and given a shared sense of ownership in the fight against this newest manifestation of the world's oldest hate.

20080314

Purim Thursday: A global series of simultaneous pro-Israel rallies are planned for Purim night.

The solidarity rallies on March 20 will be presented live on the Internet by the sponsoring organization, One Family Fund, which supports victims of terrorism. A Web site (www.together4israel.org) created for the event will allow the public to participate.

Alan Dershowitz, the well-known American lawyer, and Irwin Cotler, a member of the Canadian Parliament and a human rights expert, will begin the event from Sderot with residents of the rocket-plagued town.

The rally will then move to Jerusalem, where psalms will be read at the Western Wall. At the same time there will be a gathering in London followed by rallies in New York City at the Kehilat Jeshuran synagogue, in Los Angeles at the Simon Wiesenthal Center and finally in Australia.

20080312

While President George Bush made little specific reference to Israel in his address to the National Religious Broadcasters, we present Sen. John McCain's impromptu remarks at last year's conference. A DemoCast exclusive video.

20080307

Asserting "Allah is the Greatest," a Muslim-Israeli rampaged through a Jerusalem Bible seminary, machine-gun-massacring more than 18 youngsters. The attacker, 20-year-old Alaa abu Dhein, entered the yeshiva seminary and opened fire of more than 400 rounds on students in a planned attack, murdering 7 adolescent students, one 26-year-old student; and wounding more than 10 more boys. Witnesses say that the attack began in the seminary's library with the terrorist spraying bullets in every direction before anyone could react.

"It was a slaughterhouse," said Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, head of the Zaka emergency service after surveying the scene at the Merkaz Harav seminary, one of the most prominent Jewish educational centres in Jerusalem.

"One Orthodox Jewish man came up to me and said, "I want you to report this attack means something completely different to us because it wasn't on a bus or a coffee shop ... it was in the most sacred place for us Jews ... an institute of Jewish holiness and sanctification!"Here is a range of video clips covering the massacre from varying perspectives: from eyewitness footage of the crime-scene, to Britain's Channel Four News' diverting the tragedy to Israel or blame to Palestinian; to Iran's global English "Press TV" Channel justifying the action. Also available are the Israeli reaction, a New York reaction, and several memorial tributes on YouTube attempting to find meaning from the tragedy. (Click on the second button for video menu, or the arrow on the right margin to advance to the next of 12 videos).

As a Jewish Ethiopian mother came to identify her dead son’s body at the school, she was crying loudly. Her other son shouted in Hebrew, "I will avenge for my brother's blood that was spilled."

Although the attack itself was carried out on behalf of a terrorist organization it is still not clear which one. Several have claimed credit, including Hamas, which later retracted its statement. A relatively new terrorist gang, calling itself the Martyrs of Imad Mughniyeh (the Hizbullah second-in-command who was assassinated in Damascus last month) also claimed responsibility, as did an Israeli-Arab terrorist group in the Galilee.

It was the deadliest attack on Israeli civilians in nearly two years and the first attack inside Jerusalem in four. It occurred at the start of the Hebrew month in which the Purim holiday occurs, and many of the witnesses at first thought the gunfire was firecrackers in celebration.

The part-time yeshiva student who killed the terrorist, 40-year-old Yitzchak Dadon, said that he shot the attacker in the head with his personal weapon. David Shapira, a yeshiva graduate and officer in the paratroopers, heard the shots from his nearby home, ran to the yeshiva and "finished [the terrorist] off."

Asked by a Channel 2 TV reporter what weapon the Palestinian Authority terrorist had, Dadon said, "A Kalachnikov," and turning to the camera, he angrily added, "The Kalachnikov that you gave him, President Peres ..."

The scene outside the yeshiva was furious and passionate, with at least 50 ambulances and as many police cars on the streets outside, and angry yeshiva students and local residents lined up behind police tapes, chanting, “Death to Arabs,” “Olmert — you are to blame” and “Who gave them weapons?”

Daniel Seaman, head of the Israeli government press office, said: “Jerusalem is a town where Jews and Arabs live together. The terrorist took advantage of the fact that he could move freely in west Jerusalem.”

In Gaza City, Palestinians went out into the streets and fired rifles in the air in celebration of the attack against the Jews of Jerusalem. Some fired weapons in the air, and threw sound bombs in the streets, while drivers pressed on their cars horns. Other Palestinians delivered candies and sweets in the streets in celebration. Mosques loudspeakers in Gaza also broadcasted verses of the Quran, the Moslem holy book, with speakers saying "we congratulate our people for the heroic and selective attack in Jerusalem."

The Abu Dhein family gave public celebrations in Jerusalem and in Jordan to honor their son's 'martyrdom.' Consistent with IDF policy, the home of the terrorist was subsequently razed to the ground by bulldozers.

The Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva is located near the entrance to Jerusalem, in the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood. The yeshiva, founded by Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook, is at the heart of the national-religious movement in Israel.

Asked what the government should do, Rabbi Nachum Levy, 60, said: “I would like to see Olmert go with a strong hand.” Where? “Everywhere, in Gaza and the north and inside,” he said, “and not dismantle settlements.” (from Israel National News & combined sources).

"The celebration of this sort of slaughter entails a dehumanization of the victims so intense as to dehumanize the apologist. Such hatred is all-consuming.

This addiction to violence has been the Palestinian national movement's central failing. The repeated embrace of violence over compromise, and the celebration of barbaric terrorist attacks, serve to blacken the soul, individually and collectively."

The Jerusalem Post reports that the 3-month rookie police officer who was the first to arrive at the scene of the terrorist attack at Jerusalem's Mercaz Harav Yeshiva on March 6 but failed to enter the building and engage the attacker remains on active duty, police said Wednesday.

The 22-year-old sergeant, who completed his training at the police academy three months ago, was performing well, and had not been reprimanded or demoted, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said.

Jerusalem police chief Cmdr. Aharon Franco said Wednesday the officer should have tried to make direct contact with the terrorist, rather than wait at the entrance to the school while the shooting continued.

According to a police investigation, almost two minutes elapsed between the officer's arrival on the scene and the entry into the yeshiva of an off-duty paratrooper captain, David Shapira, who arrived from his nearby home with his M-16 rifle and, together with yeshiva student Yitzhak Dadon, killed the attacker, Ala Abu Dhaim, from the capital's Jebl Mukaber neighborhood.

Abu Dhaim first killed eight, including six high school students, and wounded nine.

What motivates crimes of this barbarity among Arab-Muslims? Investors' Business Daily published this editorial with one answer:

When a (West Bank-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, a professional and independent polling agency that surveys Palestinians four times a year has found that no less than 84% of 1,270 Palestinians questioned by the center in personal interviews said they supported the March 6 shooting inside Jerusalem's Mercaz Harav yeshiva) poll reveals all but a fraction of Palestinians support the murder of eight innocent Jewish seminarians, it shows a people wedded to evil. It's a short trip from this hate to the kind Hitler espoused.

The message we get from this is very clear: The vast majority of Palestinians advocate such acts of terrorism against young innocents because the victims were Jews.

Their version of the Final Solution may not entail gas chambers and concentration camps, as Germany's National Socialists did in the last century. But it does apparently include murdering, at random, Jews because they are Jews. Not to say that there was not a clear political purpose behind the choice of target. The Mercaz Harav yeshiva is considered the flagship of the religious Zionist movement, the roots of which date back to a century and a half ago.

Religious Zionism holds that Jews have an inalienable and permanent right to the land of Israel because God bestowed the Holy Land upon the ancient Israelites. The resettling of Israel by Jews and the establishment of a Jewish homeland there, according to its rabbinical supporters, can hasten the coming of the messiah.

Founded in 1924, the yeshiva's alumni include leading Israeli armed forces officers and prominent rabbis. One of them, Rabbi David Stav, said the attack struck the heart of religious Zionism.

"The terrorist targeted a place that symbolizes love for the land of Israel, love for the people of Israel and love for the Torah," he told the Jerusalem Post.

"No Jewish soul can remain indifferent to the horrible thought that a despicable terrorist attacked a group of young men who were busy studying the holy Torah," added Stav, who has taken part in inter-religious activities with Muslim clerics. "Followers of Islam claim they respect the people of the book. But this horrific act proves the emptiness of their claims."

It's one thing for a tribe or nationality to oppose its neighbors, even by war. Arabs can fight the Israeli military, oppose its settlement policies, and even question the very existence of the state of Israel as artificial. But what we're seeing here sinks far beneath that.

What's at issue here is the difference between ordered liberty and barbarism, between humanity and savagery.

Khalil Shikaki's poll shows that nearly an entire people support the murder of innocent kids because they're religious Jews. The civilized nations once fought a world war to prevent the global dominance of that kind of hate.

When the judge ordered France2 to turn over all of its footage of the incident, it also showed the boy moving his arms and peering through his fingers after he was supposed to be dead.

But Muslim rage at the original France2 news story led to countless reprisals against Jews around the world. It was even mentioned by terrorists as a reason for the beheading Daniel Pearl.

Scott Jacobs, Editor at DemocracyBroadcastingNews.com, says the France2 story "globally defames the Jewish nation, Israel, with a fabricated icon of hypocritical brutality and immorality; and criminalizes Jews and their State to justify pariah / punishment."

Full article and/or video from ABC Family Channel's "The 700 Club" here.

Prof. Richard Landes, chronicler of the Al Dura Affaire via The Second Draft, is the academic authority on the problem and the ramifications:

"Israelis repeatedly express astonishment at why Jews from the diaspora care about setting this record straight when they just wish it would go away. When they realize how powerful the impact not only on Israel, but on Jews around the world, they express surprise.

As Karsenty later explained to the judges, “The day after al Durah, one of my employees came into the office and challenged me, ‘Look at what your army has done, murdering an innocent child!’” In Brussels, a rabbi was attacked the next day on the way to New Year’s services, never having seen the footage.

That’s the core of the blood libel: a Jew deliberately murders an innocent child, and all Jews everywhere are held responsible. Five days later crowds of immigrant Muslims and European leftists would hold a huge banner aloft in Place de la République with a "Star of David = Swastika = picture of the al Durahs behind the barrel," shouting “Death to Israel! Death to the Jews!”

In related news, 'Ron Hogan on Media Bistro writes a review of philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy who appeared at NY's 92nd Street Y. He weighed in on the ways that anti-semitism has reconfigured itself for the 21st century.

"I am a few months younger than Israel," Lévy quipped at the start of his speech, but he cannot remember any moment in his lifetime when the nation seemed "as lonely, as vulnernable, and as threatened" as it is now, particularly as the anti-semitism that he sees at the root of much anti-Zionist rhetoric has become more openly expressed. "The dikes are broken," he warned, citing the UN conference at Durban and the boycotts being mounted against book fairs in Paris and Turin which have chosen to honor Israel's contributions to world literature.

So what can Jews do against this pernicious worldview?

"Respond blast for blast," Lévy urged, and dismantle this new anti-semitic rhetoric before it coalesces into a political movement with real power. (As he noted, the new anti-semites are openly looking to acquire nuclear weapons, and if they get them, they plan to use them.) He also called upon Jews to strengthen their alliances with other persecuted groups, and to work whatever influence they could muster to ensure that moderate Muslims prevail in that religion's internal struggle with fundamentalism. (He even suggested that the Koran might benefitfrom the application of Talmudic reading.) And, he noted, "the morale of Israel is at its best," and ready to deal with this threat. "The best defense is attack," he said, citing Clausewitz, "and the best attack is confrontation."

Dr. Kaplan and Dr. Small examined the views of 5004 Europeans, roughly 500 individuals sampled from each of 10 European Union countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom). The authors' main publicized results confirmed their (rather commonsensical) a priori hypothesis: anti-Israel sentiments strongly and independently predicted the likelihood that an individual was Antisemitic in a graded manner, i.e., the more anti-Israel (on a scale of zero to 4), the more a person was likely to be Antisemitic.

But a much more striking and relevant finding in light of the burgeoning Jew hatred now evident in Europe's Muslim communities, received much less attention: in a controlled comparison to European Christians (as the "referent" group), European Muslims were nearly eightfold (i.e., 800%) more likely to be overtly Antisemitic. [emphasis added] ("Anti-Israel Sentiment Predicts Antisemitism in Europe," p. 557 and Table 3, p. 558.) Furthermore, in light of the Pew Global Attitudes Project data on Muslim attitudes toward Jews in Islamic countries, the Yale study likely underestimated the extent of Antisemitism amongst Europe's Muslim communities, had more poorly educated, less acclimated European Muslims been sampled. Pew's earlier international survey indicated ("The Great Divide: How Westerners and Muslims View Each Other", Pew Global Attitudes Project, June 22, 2006.),

"In the Muslim world, attitudes toward Jews remain starkly negative, including virtually unanimous unfavorable ratings of 98% in Jordan and 97% in Egypt. Muslims living in Western countries have a more moderate view of Jews - still more negative than positive, but not nearly by the lopsided margins that prevail in Muslim countries."

JEDDAH, 3 March 2008 — Early morning shoppers at a supermarket in Jeddah were left reeling yesterday, with some falling unconscious, after a well-built Syrian man clinched a knife and decapitated his 15-month-old nephew in front of his mother in the store’s fruit and vegetable section.

ABC News' reportage of the story notably omits any reference to the faith of the murderer, or the Islamic-cultural derivation for beheading.

Syed Kamran Mirza on the Freethinkers site explains the significance of beheading as punishment for sin in Islamic culture, and as a culturally-sanctioned sin-punishment in Saudi Arabia- the beheading capital of the modern world.

Saudi Arabia uses public beheading as the punishment for murder, rape, drug trafficking, sodomy and armed robbery, apostasy and certain other offences such as homosexuality illicit love affairs of Saudi girls (one Saudi princess was beheaded for illicit love).

It’s not true that they have any shortage of guns and pistols. But they are afraid to disobeying Prophet’s methods and tactics prescribed by the holy Quran.

They are desperate to get full benefits (getting lucrative Islamic heavens as promised by the Quran) of their service to Islam. Therefore they are bound to use Prophetic methods (read Islamic style) of killing/assassinating the enemies of Allah and Prophet by slitting necks, cutting hands and legs by a long-curve sword.

Police said they had received reports from a number of locals that their wallets had been stolen while attending prayers in a mosque located in the north of the capital. Police later monitored the mosque and were able to apprehend one suspect, who had in his possession a stolen wallet. The man led police to his accomplices.

Riyadh police announced that they apprehended three suspects — two of them of Arab nationalities and the third an African — in connection with a number of muggings in Riyadh, the capital.

Over the past year armed robberies have increased in the capital at an alarming rate. Police have exerted efforts in apprehending suspects, the majority of them local youths who are also involved in car thefts and muggings. In one incident reported by the local police a few months ago, three suspects threatened a foreign worker in a grocery store with a machine gun.

(JTA) The head of a Texas Jewish federation warned of an anti-Israel resolution in the state's caucuses.

In an e-mail Lee Wunsch, the president and chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston, urged Jewish voters to vote Tuesday, and particularly to return to caucus that evening after the polls close.

"We have strong indications that a vile, anti-Israel resolution will come up in some precinct meetings," Wunsch wrote. "In previous election cycles, similar resolutions have come forth in both the Democratic and Republican caucuses. So please, regardless of your political preference, take the time to vote for your candidate of choice and be prepared to defend Israel at your caucus."

Wunsch also provided instructions for voters about how to participate in Texas' two-step contest. The unique primary-caucus hybrid has sown confusion across the state in advance of the highly contested Democratic battle between U.S. Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY).

As Europeans continue to downplay the connection betwen the press' systemic libeling of the Jewish State (deconstructed in the case of France2TV's Mohammed-al-Dura libel suit) and the climate of anti-Semitism throughout Europe, the Paris suburb of Bagneux delivers yet another pathetic proof: an anti-Semitic torture crime from the same town that Ilan Hamili was tortured to death in two years ago.

The European Jewish Press reports, "Six youths from the southern Paris suburb of Bagneux, aged 17 to 25, are accused of locking up 19-year-old Mathieu Roumi in a storage room on February 22, beating and sexually tormenting him.

Aged 17 to 25, the six youths -- who knew the victim -- had falsely accused him of stealing from them in order to lure him into a trap, judicial sources said. Once he arrived in the apartment of one of his aggressors, the young man was handcuffed on a radiator and beaten.

With a pen, the aggressors scrawled "dirty Jew" and "dirty faggot" on the face of their victim. Later they forced him to swallow down cigarette butts and to suck a condom on a stick.

The man's ordeal reportedly lasted nine and a half hours. He was later hospitalised "in a state of shock". The Jewish community of Bagneux is comprised of some 100 Jewish families."

Who created the climate for this 'special punishment' of Jews in France? Israel-vilifying at the expense of Palestinian sufferage has been the narrative in European media reporting for years. The Intifada was created by Yasser Arafat in part to publicly damn Israel by creating that image for journalists.

Though the Palestinians were presumed to be provoking these damning events (few, like, Prof. Richard Landes revealed that they were even staging them. But no one believed that the press themselves would actually demand video that was damning - to help the underdog Palestinians by turning the world against Israel (simultaneously feeding their feed their blood-lust against the Jews).

Even the French courts, upon forced examination by Charles Enderlin's libel suit against Philippe Karsenty, wish to reject the Zionists' claim of journalistic conspiracy. But famous ballistics expert, Jean-Claude Schilinger, finds that the Israeli forces could not have killed Mohammed al-Dura. He further finds that there was no evidence that Muhammad was actually even killed, nor his father injured, as reported by Enderlin on France2.

Why is exposing the press' fraud & complicity in the al-Durah case so significant? Is it just because the Palestinian blood-libel results in antipathy towards French Jewish citizens?1) The case reveals the corruption and complicity of the trusted, objective, journalistic industry- which the public relies upon to deliver truth and reality, instead turning them into agents of propagandized blood-libel; which created a self-perpetuating, media-vilifying against Israel and it's perceived Christian supporters. Charles Enderlin may consider himself Jewish, but he marches to the 'Liberal' Media party cadence; in this case, 'sympathize with the Muslims: victims of natural, villainous, Jewish oppression. Hence, the Europeans eliminate their inherited guilt of their grandparents' having turned-in their Jewish neighbors for torture and genocide because they didn't believe in Jesus as Messiah.' Hence, the world can no longer trust its independent journalistic institutions (AP, AFP, Reuters, and the local news outlets which parrot their stories) to represent objectivity in cases involving 'imperialistic Judeo-Christian America and Israel;

2) It globally defames the Jewish nation, Israel, with a fabricated (seemingly incontrovertible) icon of hypocritical brutality and immorality; and criminalizes Jews (and their State) to justify pariah-punishment from all ethical people;

3) It mollifies the world from challenging Islamic political and social imperialism- whether manifested in:

a) the quest for the cultural and relgious Islamicization of Western societies,

b) the Muslim crusade to 'reconquer' Jerusalem by establishing "a Palestinian State," with Jerusalem as its capital; and even

c) Iran's apocalyptic Mullahs' impending triggering a global nuclear war, seeking to conquer the Islam-rejecting, America, and the State of Israel in the name of Allah the Almighty."

4) The libel verdict against fraud-exposer Philippe Karsenty represents a victory against truth and reason. This portends for ill for Jews during a period when an Islamic-Western oil-axis influences public sentiments about either not offending Muslim sensibilities (fundamentalist oil-price setters, defamation-litigating front-groups like CAIR, MPAC, and MSA or the abundance of Muslim immigrants worshipping in Muslim Brotherhood-extremism-inculcating outposts), or pleasing the West's new bosses - as politcal Islamist equity (thereby influence) permeates throughout Western economies, institutions, and society.

Consequently anti-Semitism in the US is increasingly rabid and spreading. But, as in Nazi Europe leading to World War II, it portends the decline of ethics and reason in society. Islamism is on the march. What is scapegoating for, if not to deny an inconvenient reality?